Living in the loop
by bhut
Summary: Angelika is stuck in a timeline loop and is quite sick of it. So now she is seeking new and creative ways to live her life, and woe betide anyone, who gets caught in her path. She might have company, though...
1. Chapter 1

**Living in the Loop: Life #11 – the Unabomber**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners_.

1-1

It was a rather dark and stormy night, and everyone was screaming. The parachutist was screaming because he was about to be eaten by a Pteranodon, the flying reptile was screaming because it was about to have its new meal and Ange...

Well, Angelika "Ange" Finch _was not_ screaming, actually. Rather, she put down her night vision goggles/binoculars combo and pressed a button on a remote-operating device.

The next moment the rooftop from which the screams were coming erupted in a Semtex explosion. The screaming stopped; in fact, by the time that the firemen have arrived, the only sounds were the crackles of the flames...

1-2

Angelika's day was shaping according to schedule. Last night's events have clearly didn't affect Evan's actions today one bit; he was still late to this very important meeting, and she-

"Hey, Ange!"

- had intercepted without really seeking to do so.

"Evan," Angelika replied calmly, before switching her attention to the other man. "Do I know you?"

"Ange, that's Mac – the firearms specialist I was telling you about," Evan brightly replied, seemingly ignoring the fact that the other two people were eyeing each other, subconsciously taking each other's stock if it came to a fight...and that was worrisome for Ange. Not for Evan - whatever course the current history would take, he would always remain Evan, something that she realized to her sorry (and almost immediately afterwards – disdain) several lifetime loops ago.

It is here that some clarification is probably in order. It began about ten lifetimes ago, when Angelika Finch discovered that after she died she always came back several years in the past _before_ becoming Cross Photonics' CFO; the actual date of her death didn't count, and neither did the manner of her passing.

After spending several lifetimes in trying to fix Evan's dinosaur-related problem (she always returned to late to actually save Brooke), and basically getting killed by Mac in one of them, Ange said "Screw him and Evan that brought him to Vancouver in the first place!" and spent several other lifetimes joining the Israeli army, eventually becoming a commando in the force.

Honestly, after juggling dinosaurs, chronologically displaced giant beetles and scorpions, mammal-like reptiles, flightless birds and who knows what else, serving in Special Forces was a breeze, and given the fact that Angelika's ancestry _was_ Middle Eastern, she quickly acquired a fair amount of the local languages and knowledge, and that included "balsama".

Apparently, while she was helping Evan and others save perfect strangers from prehistoric monsters (and with a rather mottled rate of success, too), a kibbutz in Israel had discovered some sort of an ancient secret that regarded a very potent, very interesting, very long-forgotten perfume and was actually working on a plan to introduce it to the rest of the modern world. Fair enough. And Ange, who after befriended Toby in few lifetimes, began to appreciate the more feminine aspects of a woman's lives even more, so after she died in the last time loop, promptly went and sought them out in this one and became their sponsor. Soon her investment would pay off, and she would launch a coup and buy Evan out of Cross Photonics, basically. Few lifetimes ago she would not even think about this, of course, or at least would feel bad about it, but not anymore. Evan did not really care about Cross Photonics, pure and simple, and Ange did, so why would she care about Evan Cross?..

"Guys? You have been eyeing each other for a long time," Evan's joking voice broke through Angelika's reverie. "This isn't love at first sight, is it?"

"No," Angelika quickly replied and left – she had much more than a coup on her hand for today, after all.

1-3

_The door was flung open by a powerful kick. "Freeze! NCIS!" yelled the woman on the right. _

"_Hm," Angelika let the KA-BAR remain stuck in the table. After all, she was not through with _this_ loop just yet. "And who are you?"_

"_Angelika 'Ange' Finch, you are under arrest for multiple charges of manslaughter," the woman continued, while her partner kept his gun on her – Ange pouted. Her military training had obviously included firearms, including the _Galil_, but her best proficiency was in explosives...followed by close-quarters combat, as the female NCIS agent discovered, when Ange used the ABIR system to break her arm and send her flying into the wall._

"_Tony-y-y-y!" the agent yelled as Ange ripped her blade out of the table just as –_

_BANG_

_- She was shot. The bullet went into her left lung, punching a BIG hole in her torso, but the male agent was fairing little better – Ange's blade had pinned him to a wall through the throat..._

_As Angelika's world was fading from red to black, and she was musing to herself that dying by a bullet sucked, the last words she heard were "Tony...Tony..."from the remaining NCIS agent_

1-4

Tracy Drake was old and prone to ruminations, i.e. – to thinking. About himself and his life, certainly, but also about others.

Evan Cross... When it came to theories that boy was crazier than a pack of weasels with sledgehammers, but he _was_ well intentioned. He certainly offered to pay for Tracy's operation without any hesitation and there laid the problem.

Tracy was old, but he was also proud and liked to think that he had values and intelligence - intelligence enough to find out, for example, that Evan's position in supposedly his company was far less secure than the younger man realized, and that if he paid for Tracy's operation it just might destroy it altogether.

On top of that was the fact that Tracy was, well, old. There was a significantly large chance that despite the operation he might die all the same and maybe during the operation, even, leaving Evan Cross in the lurch. Tracy hated leaving anyone in a lurch, and he did not like the possibility of living the rest of his life as a bed-bound invalid even more. Consequently, this was why he was stalking through one of the park's building, armed with a one-time tranquilizer gun hunting something that had killed at least one person before...

...and he had no idea what it looked like, either. He really _was_ suicidal. Wonderful.

Abruptly, the light from Tracy's flashlight illuminated a slumbering person, apparently a hobo that snuck in for a nap.

"Hey, buddy, wake up! Did you see anyone or anything...?" Tracy nudged the other man with his foot, inadvertedly flipping him over... and setting of another one of Angelika's more ingenious explosive traps.

...When the firemen arrived the second time, this time followed by Vancouver's finest and the bomb department, the Utahraptor was long gone. Its protofeathers were singed, and its snout was bloodied, but it was quite alive otherwise. Fully operational too.

And in its cold, reptilian mind, it was also quite ready to kill whoever that had stolen its prey.

1-5

If Ange's encounter with Mac Randall today had been completely accidental, then her encounter with Connor Temple was fully on purpose. She had a _large_ debt towards Mr. Secret A.R.C. Agent man, and intended to pay it back, fully, hence – the meeting.

"Uh, hello!" Connor said faux-brightly. He _was_ a formidable man, just not taken well by surprises, and this time it seemed that Angelika did have the upper hand.

"Hello!" she innocently replied. "What are you doing here, exactly?"

"Oh, you know, I'm with the Internet company... yes, the Internet company... we've been getting many calls about the Internet being slow... you know..."

"Does it have something to do with magnetic interference, perhaps?" Ange asked, carefully looking into Connor's eyes, seeking, almost desperately, that flicker of awareness, indicating that this was not his first time loop either...

"Er... well, yes, yes it is," Connor replied, sounding rather desperate himself. "That is exactly what is wrong with them. Why are you looking at me like that, Ms.-"

"Tell me, do you believe that our lives are being run by one or several gods with a rather sadistic sense of humour, causing us to relieve our lives over and over again, like some overlarge groundhog day?" Angelika innocently asked, as she moved subtly closer to the Englishman, still gazing askance into his eyes.

"...I have no idea what you're talking about," Connor started to reply, but never finished as Angelika ran him through – with a blade. This part of Cross Photonics building was practically abandoned – this had suited Connor's purpose initially, but it had suited Angelika's purpose just as well.

"You don't," Angelika softly replied as life faded in Connor's eyes. "Well, sucks to be you, then."

And then she took a deep breath and dragged Connor away to hack him into pieces and give him a proper burial.

1-6

"_And this is the participant in the internal exchange program – Ms. Finch," the superior (James Lester?) said in a bored way before turning to leave. "Ms. Finch, this is Connor Temple. Have fun working with him." _

_And he was gone._

_Very carefully, Angelika looked at the Englishman who always had been there when things would go _wrong _in all of her timeline loops._

"_Tell me, do you believe that our lives are being run by one or several gods with a rather sadistic sense of humour, causing us to relieve our lives over and over again, like some overlarge groundhog day?" she innocently asked, as she moved subtly closer to the Englishman, still gazing askance into his eyes._

"_Yes," Connor replied, and Angelika realized with a start that Mr. Temple had been in this time and place before, not unlike herself. "And I'm thinking that we can start our talk with this. Angie, you weren't in the army before, was you?"_

"_Don't call me Angie!" Angelika instinctively snapped, before exhaling. "But yes, you're right. I wasn't."_

1-7

"...And that," Ange mused, as she sat in her office, "had been a beginning of a surprisingly good relationship. Pity that it ended with Connor Temple being even a bigger ass than I thought that he would be. Ah well. You won't be raising any trouble this time..." and she flipped the still defunct time anomaly detector of Evan's once again. "Now what should I do with this-"

The phone rang. Angelika took a deeper than expected breath and picked up. "Evan? Listen-"

"Ms. Finch? This is Lt. Leeds from, um, Vancouver PD-"

"What?" Angelika's eyes budged. This really was Kenneth Leeds, but she seriously doubted that he had switched from the military to police in this loop. More likely it was some sort of a cover-up, and that meant... Angelika gulped.

"Ms. Finch? Are you still here?"

"Lieutenant? Is something wrong with Evan? He and his people went to the park..." Angelika trailed away.

"...Yes. They were working with Ms. Weir, an animal control specialist. It, um, went horribly wrong."

"How wrong? Where are they? Where they are?!" Angelika began to babble.

"At the morgue..."

Angelika released the phone receiver – Leeds continued to mumble something in it – and looked at the list. The flying reptile – check. The raptor – check?

"Oh dear," Angelika spoke without really utilizing her vocal cords. "Apparently I didn't get the raptor." She picked the phone back up. "Where are they?" she asked as steely as she could. "I still need to see them."

1-8

_The wheelchair was rolled in. Even if Angelika was not handcuffed to it hand and foot, it would still be unlikely that she would escape, not from the federal jail. Strangely, Ziva David, the NCIS-Mossad agent, was waiting for her. _

"_Yes?" Angelika deemed the other woman worthy of acknowledgement. "What do you want?"_

"_Why?" Ziva asked simply. "Why did you do-"_

"_What I have done?" Angelika shrugged. "Because our lives are being run by one or several gods with a rather sadistic sense of humour, causing us to relieve our lives over and over again, like some overlarge groundhog day. I tried to do the right thing, and it did not do squat. So, for the next several time lines I'm doing the wrong thing instead."_

"_Of course, first it was time travel, now it is Groundhog Day. You no longer disgust me, Finch, but your superiors did. Clearly, your mental state-"_

"_David," Angelika interrupted the younger woman. "The time travel _is _a part of the Groundhog Day situation, pay attention!"_

"_No," Ziva shook her head. "We're done. I am sorry that you have to die, but perhaps it is the best solution. Good-bye, Angelika Finch."_

"_Yes, yes," Angelika indolently replied, as she began to be rolled down the hall once again for the lethal injection. "Don't worry – I just may look you up in one of my future time lines. You probably won't remember this, though..."_

1-9

The funeral for Evan Cross, Mac Randall and the others was a private one, done, appropriately, on a cold, rainy day. There were few people attending their burial, save for Toby's blonde ex-girlfriend (Natalie), who was more than upset about the loss of her supposed ex, lieutenant Leeds, who still pretended to be a cop, and who was more than slightly morose about the whole experience, and Angelika, who was so devastated (supposedly) that her face was nothing more than a blank mask.

Inside, however, Angelika was a whirl of emotion and self-aimed questions.

_I never wanted Evan dead, did I? Mac Randall – yes, sure, especially considering that he did try to kill me when he assumed that I was going to betray Evan, which I so totally was going, but that is besides the point, is it? They are all dead, even Toby, who was quite fun when I had her under control... oh well. Maybe in the next time loop this tragedy will be avoided...or not..._

As Angelika sat in her pew, struggling with her internal thoughts, the last words of the hymn – "The day thou giveth, Lord, has endeth" – rang in the church.

1-10

_The utahraptor sniffed at the glowing ball of strange-colored light. It smelled funny, with just a promise of new prey. As the rather intelligent dinosaur stood there, wondering as to whether or not it should charge at this strange object, its mate called from further down the slope – the iguanodon herd has finally arrived._

_That changed the situation completely. With nary a thought for the glowing ball, the utahraptor whirled around and raced down the slope._

_End _Life #11


	2. Chapter 2

**Living in the Loop: Life # 15 – Mac and I**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners._

2-1

It begins as it always began in a thousand of loops: a pair of people boating in a pair of Zodiac™ inflatable rafts over the waters of the Pacific Ocean doing their business.

A time anomaly opens deep within the selfsame waters. A prehistoric (or futuristic, but that is beside the point) carnivore emerges from it, its eyes aiming up and about.

It notices the inflatable rafts and swims upwards...

2-2

"Ms. Finch? Your afternoon appointment is here."

"Appointment? I didn't have an appointment..." Angelika Finch, a professional flamenco dancer (for the last two loops anyways) stopped as Mac Randall entered her room. "Oh. It is you. You're aware that this is a Loop, right?"

"Yes," Mac ground out. "And I see that you are as well."

"Oh?"

"Whenever you're... Looping, you are away from Cross Photonics. When you are not, you are there. Anyways, let us go and help Evan-"

"No."

"What?"

"There's a reason why I no longer help Evan Cross, Dylan Weir and your crazy crusade without a cause. Deny it if you want, but that is what I do. Now leave."

"Or what?" Mac glared. Angelika met his gaze without flinching.

"Have you yet been killed by a masterwork Spanish guitar?" she asked simply. "I'm nowhere as sure about firearms, but hand-to-hand combat and explosives – yes, I am stronger."

For several moments Mac and Ange continued to stare at each other, and then Mac looked away first. "Please, help me just once?" he suggested in a more peaceful tone. "I'll owe you once, and besides, last time I helped, I got eaten by a dinosaur-"

"No, dinosaurs lived on land-"

"I know. Last time, there was some sort of a sea monster and a smaller, more ordinary dinosaur that hunted on land, and that what ate me. Evan and Dylan appeared to have escaped, though... at least I hope. Anyways-"

"Ok," Ange cut her interlocutor off. "I'll help. But just once."

"I can live with that."

2-3

_The knife was in Ange's hand, but hilt first. "Leave," she growled, "and I'll forget that this discussion has ever occurred."_

"_Look, you're making a big mistake," Lilah Morgan from W&H replied, wide-eyed. "All of your positive aspects aside, you're just-"_

"_Lilah." Unlike his associate, Menghiz ("no last name, just Menghiz") is completely unshaken; though he has pulled out a blade of his own – a triangular, vaguely shark tooth-like blade into the open as well. "Ms. Finch is giving us options, which is more than most of our failed clients, have given us. We are leaving. But," he gave Ange an amber glare from beneath his grey and bushy eyebrows, "Ms. Finch, keep your options open as well. We can benefit you too, believe it!"_

2-4

The trio walked silently through the B.C. woodland, Dylan and Evan in front, Ange further behind.

"This is the last time I let Dylan sucker me into anything," Angelika was muttering quietly to herself: in this Loop she was an owner of a firing range rather than a CFO, but Dylan was able to talk her into being their backup all the same. Why? Angelika was not sure, though after several Loops where she was in a friendly (or rather _more than_ friendly relationship) with Toby, she began to suspect.

"Look, the time anomaly must be here – we're standing practically on top of it!" Evan, meanwhile, was saying something else to Dylan as the trio stood upon the coastal cliff now. "Behold!"

And Dylan beheld. So did Ange, for that matter – a bay with the time anomaly glowing beneath the surface and a pod of prehistoric-looking whales (but still whales, not giant snakes) playing in the waves.

"This is actually quite lively," Ange heard Dylan comment, before something burst from the bushes behind them and grabbed Ange fully across the torso. Her gaze already darkening from the massive body trauma and her position also very wrong, Ange still could swear that her attacker looked like a giant hyena.

She also could swear that she heard the other two arguing if whether they should rescue her or help the prehistoric predator go back to its own time, but it was beside the point.

She was gone.

2-5

Mac's motorcycle stopped quite a distance away from the oil distillery; in fact, it was quite a bit of distance away from where Ange remembered Evan and Dylan stopping before going and seeking out this particular time anomaly. "Why?" she asked the Englishman. "Why stop here?"

"I want some space for manoeuvres, if worse comes to worse," Mac explained reluctantly. "I mean, there were dinosaurs, and giant snakes, and I don't know what other kind of misshapen monsters. I want to go a roundabout way first."

"Then you should've talked to Evan-"

"I don't have a convenient explanation to sell to him," Mac explained, "and furthermore, he really needs some time with Dylan – maybe an early start to their relationship will be good," he shook his head. "Say, in the Loops when you're aware-"

It was Ange's turn to shake her head. She had never been against a "yuri" relationship, and in the loops where she hooked up with Toby her life had been very enjoyable, but Dylan? "She and Evan just appear to have togetherness, you know?" she said instead.

"Exactly!"

"Evan who tries so hard to pretend to be a leader of man while in reality anyone with a stronger personality can lead him around with a minimum of fuss, provided that he doesn't confront Evan head-on, and Dylan who fulfills these requirements more than adequately, while full of fire and bile for a GreenPeace crusade of her own," Angelika continued blithely, ignoring Mac's glare. "Mind you, Brooke was better."

"Brooke?"

"Evan's _wife_. Remember her?"

"Ah," Mac paused. "I never met her. What was she like?"

It was then that they came across a giant scorpion.

2-6

The trio walked silently through the B.C. woodland, Dylan and Evan in front, Mac further behind.

"This is the last time I let Evan sucker me into anything," Mac was muttering quietly to herself: in this Loop there was no Ange, so Cross Photonics weren't as flourishing as they usually were, and only Mac's overall loyalty to Evan – and the fact that it wasn't his first Loop – kept him on board with Evan and Dylan.

"Look, the time anomaly must be here – we're standing practically on top of it!" Evan, meanwhile, was saying something else to Dylan as the trio stood upon the coastal cliff now. "Behold!"

And Dylan beheld. So did Mac, for that matter – a bay with the time anomaly glowing beneath the surface and a giant prehistoric monster, looking vaguely like a shell-like sea turtle with a head of a giant crocodile, lounging next to it in the water.

"This is... this is horrible," Mac heard Dylan comment, before something burst from the bushes behind them and grabbed him fully across the torso. His gaze already darkening from the massive body trauma and his position also very wrong, Mac still could swear that his attacker looked like an "ordinary" carnivorous dinosaur.

He also could swear that he heard Evan go into one of his flashbacks about "the day when his Brooke was gone", but it was too late.

Mac was gone as well.

2-7

The scorpion raised its stinger high and issued a warning.

"Um, shouldn't this come at a later date? You know, when we had to save Toby and you actually began to work for the local army guys, and-" Mac began to speak and then changed his mind. "Never mind. People stay the same, the animals and vermin just appear to change from Loop to Loop."

"Precisely," Angelika nodded as she cut-off a heavy stick with her knife. "You want to drive it off or should I?"

"Don't you have a gun for this sort of an occasion?" Mac asked less dryly than she would expect to.

"No, actually," Ange confessed. "I don hand-to-hand combat and explosives. You want a firefight? Do it yourself!"

The scorpion struck. Instinctively, Ange blocked the stinger strike with her impromptu staff – and the scorpion's stinger went right through the wood, before the rest of its tail jerked back, pulling the weapon from Ange's hands.

The scorpion's tail whipped back and forth once more... and it became evident that the stinger became stuck in the wood: the scorpion had essentially neutralized itself.

After several more thrashings back and forth it became evident that the scorpion was not going anywhere, or at least it was not attacking anyone.

"...You want to carry it back to the time anomaly and release it there?" Mac said after a while. "I don't like them because it – or its' cousin – did sting Toby, but it is just a spider with a tail after all. Kind of pointless to treat it like a human being..."

Angelika looked Mac straight in the eye. After several moments he looked away first.

Together they picked up the scorpion and began to carry it down to the coast.

2-9

_The dinosaur – a raptor of a large size – was in trouble. It was trapped in the Silurian, on land – and it was a time when nothing really could live on land, especially nothing as big as a raptor. Between the radiation, the thin atmosphere and the lack of food and fresh water it should have been dead and gone a long time ago – and yet it was not. It was emancipated, possibly with tumours, exhausted, and yet it crawled on._

_And then it reached food – a giant Silurian scorpion moulting, its shell still soft and vulnerable, even to a raptor that lost most of its teeth. The dinosaur tore into the arthropod, swallowing it almost whole, in one gulp._

_And then it smelled water – fresh water from a small pond nearby. With its strength somewhat renewed the raptor crawled to the pond, leaned to drink...and fell in._

_The slow and gentle current took the weakly struggling dinosaur into another time anomaly, alongside several large jawless fish that came to this pond to breed._

2-10

"No," said Mac.

"I can't believe it," said Mac.

"Just no," said Mac.

"I hear you," Ange nodded thoughtfully. "Oh yeah."

"The day thou giveth, Lord, has endeth," was playing loud and clear in Ange's mind as she stared down at the remains of Evan and Dylan, with their killer swimming in the water not far from them – a giant prehistoric squid, easily as big as an average school bus, if not bigger, but clad in a shell.

Mac growled and began to wade.

"Wait," Angelika grabbed the Englishman by an arm, before throwing something that appeared to be a sticky ball of some sort at the prehistoric squid. Her aim was true and the ball _was_ sticky, so it stuck.

"Now what?" Mac growled.

"Here," Ange shrugged as she gave her companion a remove detonator. "What? Explosions expert here!"

"Good point," Mac nodded and pressed the button.

The explosion was deafening.

"...Evan wouldn't have approved," Ange said after a while, when it stopped raining prehistoric squid and the remains just sank.

"Evan... you're wrong about him, but he _does_ have more enthusiasm than common sense. Dylan's just as bad," Mac shook his head. "In my next Loop I'll do it differently." He paused. "Look. Either I owe you or we're even, but you want to stick around and help me deal with the time anomalies 'cause Evan's gone for this Loop, and I'm not sure how I'll be able to handle it with just Toby and me-"

There was a noise behind them. The pair looked, and sure enough, the giant scorpion was gone, having finally freed its stinger from the wood and immediately fleeing into the forest.

"Fine, but if we capture it – we're keeping it," Ange said firmly. "I think that I got something of an idea how to use it..."

_End of Life #15_


	3. Chapter 3

**Living in the loop: Life #27 – beetles, Pallavi, Josh & Sam**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

3-1

_It began as it always began: a small aircraft, designed to transport goods rather than people, going through a chromatically white ball of light..._

"Whoa!" yelled Pallavi

"Watch it!" Josh yelled back as he tried in vain to regain control of the plane, until he accidentally (or not) pressed the ejector button. To their surprise (or not) the button worked, ejecting the two pilots from the plane, allowing them to parachute downwards, even as their plane crashed and burned.

"You know, I always thought that the tower of Pisa looked kind of strange, leaning like this – I just didn't know that it was going to look this way because of us," Josh commented to Pallavi.

"It's not," another plane – a much smaller and lighter ultralight – landed next to them. "Seriously, you two, do you make it a habit, flying around in planes and crashing them through the time anomalies, eh?"

"Maybe," the senior pilot had some sense to look abashed. "Will you, doc, be taking us out of here or do you want us to try our luck this time?"

The ultralight's pilot pulled out a notepad and looked at it. "Meh, this time I'm taking you out – hence the ultralight. Get in, already, before the angry mob gathers."

The duo complied.

3-2

Off the coast of northern Australia, a lonely male saltwater crocodile set off for pastures new, to seek out a new territory for himself, unaware of a solitary great white shark that was cruising the same waters looking for a meal; and she found one – save that this meal bit back.

The investigating nudge from the shark seemed to set off a reaction of some sort in the crocodile's brain as he whirled around and tried to bite the shark on the tail, but could not get a good bite.

Somewhat slowly, but still faster than the human eye could see, the shark and the crocodile whirled around in the water, almost if they were dancing in a circle a very old dance – and perhaps they were.

Eventually the crocodile appeared to have acquired the upper hand as he clumped his jaws onto the shark's snout and would not release it.

"So, Mac, you got the upper hand this time," Ange spoke in a language common to all aquatic creatures that had at least an average intelligence. "Now what?"

The Englishman turned crocodile in this loop did not answer.

3-3

"...And remember, Mac – you and Sam are on the watch here," Evan continued to speak to Mac, even as the Englishman's new (or current?) girlfriend appeared to be ignoring them but warily eyeing the time anomaly instead. Good. If she is wary then she had a good – or a better – chance of survival. "Dylan, let's go!"

The two heroes raced through the time anomaly after the vanished plane...

...and fell into a seemingly bottomless sea on the other side.

"Well," Dylan sputtered to the boss of Cross Photonics, "looks like we'll need some assistance retrieving the plane, eh?"

Evan floundered around to reply properly to his... friend (right? That's all that Dylan was to him – just a friend), when a liopleurodon, one of the biggest predators in the late Jurassic seas struck from beneath, swallowing the two of them in approximately two bites.

3-4

_It was Paris. It was raining. And there was a sphinx on Josh's chest. It looked as if it was made out of condensed milk and hot vapours, it was no bigger than an average Doberman, but by Jove it was heavy!_

_The pilot struggled, trying to use his military training to throw off the misshapen leonine monstrosity, but he had at least on cracked rib, and the sphinx did have an upper hand here._

_Something slashed through the air – a longsword, a really large and heavy one. As the sphinx fell apart and dissolved into vapor at the same time, Pallavi helped her partner get up. _

"_Let's go," she said quickly. "Dr. Ambroise isn't going to be bailing us out this time, remember?"_

_Despite his injuries Josh got onto his feet and the two raced through the streets._

3-5

"I'm just saying," Mac was telling Sam – lately the security woman has grown more distant from him for some reason and Mac did not like this. "If we're not in a relationship, then what are we in?"

"Not now, Randall," Samantha said curtly. "There's a giant beetle thing on the loose-"

"Are you dodging the question-?" Mac fell silent as he and Sam did come onto the beetle queen and it was huge.

It was also seemingly molesting some poor soul, stabbing him with its stinger; trying to pin him down and either fertilize or kill him.

"That's just wrong," Samantha sounded as if she was gagging. Mac was not feeling much better, so he raised his tranquilizer gun and fired at the prehistoric insect. The tranquilizer dart struck the giant beetle beneath its main line of armor and sunk deep.

The beetle shuddered few times and then it collapsed.

Carefully, Samantha approached the giant beetle and the man it had molested just few moments ago. "Mac?" she finally called out to her partner – only to find him already next to her. "Gah!"

"Sorry," Mac apologized. "Did I get the insect?"

"Yes," Samantha nodded as she looked down at it with more attention. "In fact, I think that it is dead."

Mac blanched.

3-6

"..And the winner of this year's Miss Pork Chops' Denver contest is Miss Toby Nance! Miss, you have anything to tell the audience?"

Toby swallowed the urge to say something like "Oh, nom-nom," and just smiled, shaking her head, all of her chins bobbing in rhythm, one after the other...

Life for Toby in this loop was good.

3-7

"...And remember, Mac – you and Sam are on the watch here," Evan continued to speak to Mac, even as the Englishman's new (or current?) girlfriend appeared to be ignoring them but warily eyeing the time anomaly instead. Good. If she is wary then she had a good – or a better – chance of survival. "Dylan, let's go!"

The two heroes raced through the time anomaly after the vanished plane...

...and fell into a seemingly bottomless sea on the other side.

"Well," Dylan sputtered to the boss of Cross Photonics, "looks like we'll need some assistance retrieving the plane, eh?"

Evan floundered around to reply properly to his... friend (right? That is all that Dylan was to him – just a friend), when several macroplattas, not quite plesiosaur or pliosaur surged up from the depth and tore them into pieces. No heroic rescue this time.

3-8

"You want me to fly the plane?" Pallavi asked in an incredulous voice. "Well, ok. Follow me into the cockpit and we will see what happens."

"Great," Evan said cheerfully; Dylan was more cautious: the lady pilot had been acting rather oddly ever since she and Evan have come to this time and place (whenever it was) – well, more so than expected from someone stuck on a downed plane surrounded by a swarm of ravenous prehistoric beetles.

Yes, admittedly, it was hard to gauge the reactions of someone stuck on a downed plane surrounded by a swarm of ravenous beetles, but Miss Pallavi appeared to be in control of her emotions at least some of the time – and at other times she behaved either like a broken puppet or like a bad actress: did she have multiple personalities on top of everything else?!

Regardless of her misgivings, however, Dylan followed Evan and Pallavi into the cockpit. As soon as she entered (after Evan) Pallavi promptly sat down into the seat and pressed a lever. Immediately, her seat (and Pallavi herself) was ejected from the cockpit – right into the time anomaly that was taking her back into the modern times...

Behind (or rather below) her, the beetles were pouring in into the cockpit and over Evan and Dylan...

3-9

"So, Lieutenant Leeds," Angelika's voice was somewhat friendly, but her facial expression was anything but, "how exactly you are going to remove a cargo plane from the time anomaly?"

"With some help from Project Magnet's science department!" Ken Leeds replied brightly. "Isn't that right, people?"

'The people', none of them exactly of a military disposition, glared – clearly, none of them were particular friends of the good lieutenant...not that that surprised Angelika at all: in all of the loops she had been, lieutenant Leeds had never been a popular guy... or he was. He just was not himself, that is all.

"And how are they going to help us do that?" Ange decided to press onto less philosophical and more pragmatic matters. "This is a cargo plane after all – a small one, but still an airplane."

"With a giant magnet, of course!" Leeds replied brightly. "An electromagnet, to be more precise!"

As the lieutenant spoke those words, a bulldozer-sized machine drove up to the runaway where the time anomaly was located. A massive disk was attached to the machine at one end.

Angelika suppressed a gulp. She had seen Project Magnet – and the British ARC, and other time anomaly related establishments – use magnets and electromagnets upon time anomalies before. The results were never pretty...

"And we're on!" the senior scientist in Leeds' party yelled to the machine's operator. "Try the first primary setting!"

"Yes sir!"

A bolt of energy – several bolts – shot from the disk to the time anomaly, which expended with a burst of energy of its own. Instead of an airport, Angelika, Leeds and the others found themselves in some sort of a primeval desert, complete with a broken airplane and scores of carnivorous beetles charging at them, their mouthparts clicking with hunger...

"Revert!" the senior scientist shouted. "Now!"

"Yes sir!" the operator yelled back... and did something that triggered an actual explosion this time.

As the world fell apart into pieces of Recent and prehistoric time periods, Angelika could only groan: say what you would about Leeds, but with him around no loop was ever boring. Ever.

3-10

"So, you've been here before?" Samantha asked the Cross Photonics CFO.

"You mean the time, not the place?" Angelika shrugged, and seeing how Samantha nodded in agreement, went on. "Yes. Quite a few times now. So has Mac Randall. So has Natalie – she's friends with Toby Nance, I think that you know her?"

"Yes."

"So have several other people, but none of them from Cross Photonics."

"Ah," Samantha nodded thoughtfully. "One more question – do Mac and I ever have a life together?"

"Never," Angelika replied. "In fact, you are going to die in less than a month, if you've forgotten. That said, you've been here before – you'll probably be here in the future – and I'm willing to help you, this time around."

"Awesome," Samantha beamed. "That dino-whatsit is going down, you know?"

Angelika just smiled, slightly.

End


	4. Chapter 4

**Living in the Loop: Life #37 – more Samantha**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters_

4-1

Angelika Finch was sitting on a bench in the zoo, having a quiet smoke (it was not a habit, but after several loops as a shark she could use some dry heat, she felt), when no one else but Samantha sat down next to her with a huff.

"Where were you? You promised that you will help!" she told the older woman in an accusing tone.

"Sorry," Ange replied, sounding genuinely apologetic, "but for the last few loops I was stuck off the coast of northern Australia."

"So? You couldn't get here?"

"No, not really," Angelika shuddered despite herself, as she remembered the sensation of water flowing through her gills. "In that state I would be more of a problem than help, believe me." She paused and looks askance at Sam. "This isn't your _second_ loop either, is it?"

"More like the fourth," Samantha confessed. "The previous two times I travelled through the time anomalies: the first time I ended in Ancient Egypt-"

"Which time, do you know?" Angelika asked with a genuine interest.

"No. I did not like it there. I hightailed from there as quickly as I could – right to Australia, sometime during the last Ice Age, where I was stuck," Samantha shivered. "And the second time I ended up in southern Africa during the early twentieth century. I don't really feel like talking about it either..."

"Ice cream?" Ange offered the other woman a chocolate-covered vanilla bar.

"Thanks!" Samantha gratefully bit into it. "Anyways, what Mac is up to? I saw him take Toby somewhere..."

"Mmm," Angelika took another puff. "I believe that this is when the two of them - plus Dylan and Evan – go to investigate their first terror bird attack."

"Is it more exciting than the beetles?"

"It's... more dynamic, certainly."

"Can we go and take a look?"

"...Eh, why not. Let's just the explosives first, shall we?"

4-2

_It had happened repeatedly – a motorcyclist would go down a forested road, a bird would come and attack him. Simple._

_This time, however, the rules were different – the driver had a mini-Uzi with him and several loops worth of knowledge when the attack will come..._

_Now..._

_The driver whirled around, grabbing his weapon in a practiced move, only to suffer an epic fail: this was a different bird; it attacked from the sky, not the ground..._

4-3

The bird was hard to miss. The bird was gigantic. Look a humongous vulture it circled around the forest, obviously keeping an eye on the roads that passed through it.

"Whoa! This bird certainly is terrible!" Sam muttered, as she and Ange watched it circle around from behind their cover.

"Yes, but from what I remember Toby telling me about it from the previous time loops, it was supposed to be flightless," Ange frowned. "How's your firearms expertise?"

"Very little," Sam confessed. "You?"

"Explosives and close-quarter combat specialist, thank you very much," Ange said calmly. "Firearms – not so much. Here, to hit one, we need either a sniper or lots of luck."

The bird swooped.

4-4

"This is wrong, this is wrong, this is so wrong," Connor Temple was trotting from one end of the enclosure to another.

"You're telling me," Abby replied, crossly. "We're horses!"

"Yes, exactly, and she knows it, knows it," Connor continued to complain. "Helen is mocking us, mocking us!"

"Simmer down," Abby said in a more sensible tone. "I'm sure this is just a coincidence..." she trailed away. A gigantic, and clearly chronologically displaced Maori, appeared next to their archnemesis, carrying an equally tall spear.

"Can I eat them?" the question was clearly directed at the horses in the padlock.

"Not by yourself," Helen commented, rather incredulously.

"Good point." The Maori whistled...

4-5

"Evan, we really should've waited for Mac," Dylan was whispering to Evan.

"Relax, this train depot is deserted-"

"Yes, and that's why I don't like it," Dylan was insistent. "There should be somebody – I'm sure I smelled smoke, there probably _was_ somebody, as in 'the recent past' rather than 'time anomaly related'-"

"Dylan, you're babbling... oof!"

"Run, you idiots!" Mac yelled, as he and Toby untangled themselves from the other two and hid inside a train wagon.

"Get inside!" Toby shouted shrilly.

"What, why-" Dylan looked around as she helped Evan get up.

Teratornis, the world's biggest bird that ever flown, swooped down upon them.

Mac and Toby just winced.

4-6

Going the long way around had led Ange and Samantha to a fenced-in field. It was all overgrown with cannabis (according to Mac and Toby's stories from the previous loops) and currently hosted a time anomaly (that must have been it) from which some noticeably chilly winds blew.

"If this goes on, then the entire harvest of Dave and Skeeter-Dog – or whatever their names are – will wither at the root," Ange said placidly as she and Sam looked around the yard. "I wonder if Dylan and Evan got eaten already."

"Excuse me?"

"Whenever Mac or I are aware, they usually get eaten," Ange explained. "Mac isn't aware of this loop – otherwise you would be with him, I bet-"

"Probably not. There are only so many times a girl can die without being saved," Samantha said crossly, and that was when the marijuana stalks were pushed aside and out came a lion.

Or maybe a large jaguar with a shaggy mane – whatever else it was, it was not a _modern_ lion, no sir!

"Ange!" Samantha gulped. "You got the Glock, do something!"

Ange looked at the Glock, then at the prehistoric lion, and began... to dance. Whatever those moves were, they were not modern either, and as the prehistoric big cat looked at them... they worked. The lion yawned, scratched itself behind an ear, and went to sleep.

"Ange, that was amazing! What was it, though?" Samantha turned to the older woman.

"Sam," Ange did not look too well – she was pale and sweating. "Can you lead me to an appropriate hideout? I really need to take a break now."

"Roger."

4-7

"This is wrong, this is wrong, this is so wrong," Connor Temple was trotting from one end of the enclosure to another.

"You're telling me," Abby replied, crossly. "We're donkeys!"

"Yes, exactly, and she knows it, knows it," Connor continued to complain. "Helen is mocking us, mocking us!"

"Simmer down," Abby said in a more sensible tone. "I'm sure this is just a coincidence..." she trailed away. A gigantic, and clearly chronologically displaced Maori, appeared next to their archnemesis, carrying an equally tall spear.

"Can I eat them?" the question was clearly directed at the horses in the padlock.

"Not by yourself," Helen commented, rather incredulously.

"Good point." The Maori whistled...

4-8

"What was that?" Samantha asked Angelika as the latter was rubbing some feeling back into her legs.

"The lion dance of Ishtar," the ex-CFO said curtly.

"And Ishtar is-"

"Ishtar, is, or was, the goddess of love and war of Mesopotamia," Angelika said curtly. "Please, let's leave it at that for now."

"Very well," Samantha relented. "So, what is the game plan?"

"We should find Mac first," Angelika confessed. "He was here before – aware, I should add. The others – weren't."

"The others are Dylan and Evan?"

"Also Toby – Mac brings her here, often, and lieutenant Leeds... but only if I'm _not_ aware and call upon him as my part of Cross Photonics/Project Magnet cooperation attempt."

"There's a cooperation attempt?"

"Only between me and Leeds...and then only occasionally. Lately I try to stay away from the military..."

A sudden shriek cut Angelika off – the giant bird was back and it was circling around one of the train wagons. The reason for that became obvious soon afterwards, as a human appeared on the roof of the same wagon and began to do his or hers darndest to fill the giant bird full of lead.

"Should we help?" Samantha muttered.

"Yes, as soon as we figure out how," Angelika confessed. "Whatever that weapon is, it's a short-barrel: this means that at a long distance its accuracy sucks, not unlike my pistol. What we need-"

Angelika did not finish. A trunk – a snake-like appendage made from muscle – swung from behind the wagon and swept both the shooter and the giant bird with one blow. Both of them hit the ground hard and did not move, and the owner of the trunk appeared from behind the train – and it was a woolly mammoth.

"Help!" Toby Nance came running away from the same mammoth. "Please?"

And the mammoth came on, catching up to Toby faster than its bulk would suggest. Angelika began to frantically examine her arsenal – she doubted that her usual amount of Semtex (that she kept on person at all times) would stop the mammoth, and the KABAR knife? Do not make me laugh.

Samantha, meanwhile, raced over to the time anomaly, put her hands to her mouth in a vaguely loudspeaker shape and began to imitate somewhat trumpeting sounds.

The woolly mammoth stopped, listened to them and promptly charged at Samantha, its ears spread fully. As it did, Samantha stopped trumpeting and jumped to the side, causing the animal to run into the time anomaly just as it snapped shut.

"You did it, yay!" Toby jumped up and down from joy, just as the prehistoric lion emerged from the marijuana and snarled.

"Oops."

4-9

_The prehistoric snake was humongous, truly titanic. The bullets fired by Dylan's soon to be ex-superior Predator Control officer had no real effect on her – they were like bird pellets to an African elephant, but they did catch the snake's attention. Slowly, it turned around, looked at its new opponent and hissed:_

"_Ya-ya-ya! Cthulhu fhtang!"_

"_I hate Wolfram & Hart," Ange just muttered as she adjusted her Micro Galil. "Well, here goes nothing!"_

4-10

"So, let me get straight," Toby said some time later, as the four of them (including the lion) sat at the Cross Photonics (a diminished version of it in this loop) and ate pizza. "The two of you have done this before?"

"No, not really," Samantha shook her head. "It's more like we've been in this _time_ before, you know? It's like groundhog day, only with more options, thanks to the time anomalies and whatnot."

"Really? What was I like?" Toby asked, honestly curious.

"Pretty much as always," Ange answered that one. "You just don't like going in the field as much."

"Maybe," Toby cleaned her teeth with a toothpick. "Maybe. But, still, can you help me? With Cross Photonics, now that the other terror bird ate Dylan and Evan and Mac is indisposed?"

"The _other_ terror bird?" Sam and Ange looked at each other. "Bugger."

_TBC_


	5. Chapter 5

**Living in the Loop: Life #61 – the dreaded Lycaenops and others**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

5-1

The young woman was in trouble. Lycaenops, a smaller, more versatile relative of the great Gorgonops, was chasing after her.

Just as the therapsid's powerful jaws were about to snap shut on her, several tasers struck, halting it in a mid-leap and making it fall.

Breathing in relief, the university student turned towards her rescuers. "Thank you-"

"Don't mention it," Ange Finch said.

5-2

_The Spinosaurus stood between the time anomaly and Connor and Abby like some prehistoric dragon, its sail casting a jagged shadow in the sun. _

"_Connor, what are we going to do?" Abby whispered. "Maybe we can distract it?"_

"_Yes, and I actually got a plan," Connor whispered back._

_This particular plan consisted of the two impromptu time travellers going back to the raptor nest and using a long stick to swipe back their stolen blanket. The raptor, naturally indignant, screeched – and this screech was answered by more raptors, a pack easily dozen animals strong, possibly even more...and they all stared at Connor and Abby with a rather unfriendly look in their eyes._

"_Connor," Abby hissed._

"_Run!"_

_And Connor and Abby ran – right back towards the Spinosaurus, which roared in anger. Connor and Abby, however, no longer cared about the solitary giant – they just put on speed and ran past him, leaving the colossal meat-eater gaping. _

_Then the raptors arrived – possibly _all_ of the neighbourhood's raptors. Spinosaurus was not the brightest dinosaur in the Cretaceous, but even it could see that currently the numbers weren't in its favor, so it turned around and fled..._

5-3

Dylan walked through Project Magnet's corridors, Ange and Lt. Leeds next to her. Evan was currently at the therapist's, and Toby had to go back to the medical room once more – her initial recovery from Brontoscorpio's venom was not as complete as it was thought. Natalie was with her...so Dylan was on her own, since she and Ange were not exactly friends at this point, and Lt. Leeds... who knew?

"So how many time anomalies does Project Magnet control?" she finally asked the aforementioned lieutenant, when their mutual silence became just too uncomfortable.

"Just two," the man replied, quietly.

"Two?"

"Yes. One leads to the later Jurassic, maybe 155 MYA..."

"That's the one with the airplane, right?"

"No. That one, we, uh," Lt. Leeds hesitated.

"Was blown up, along with the time anomaly," Ange finished flatly.

"Blown-up? How?"

"With electromagnetism," Ange continued in the same flat tone of voice. "Or electromagnets. Take your pick. This is Project _Magnet_, you know?"

"..." Dylan thought this over. "Okay. So where is that time anomaly located?"

"It's on that bridge over the waterfall, remember?" Angelika shook her head. "That's when we actually met Natalie in person, and they got almost eaten by a bear."

"Oh. That place," Dylan grimaced – she did not have any fond memories for it. "So it leads to the late Jurassic?"

"Yes," Leeds nodded. "You know – Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus, Allosaurus – those animals."

"Are they dangerous? Besides the obvious, I suppose," Dylan reluctantly asked.

"We've already lost several men – but not to them. To smaller carnivores. Ceratosaurs, I suppose," Leeds grimaced.

There was another uncomfortable pause. "What about the second one?" Ange asked faintly. After the loss of Mac they were not really interesting in hearing about people eaten by dinosaurs.

"Oh, that one leads to the Carboniferous, a much more earlier time period," Leeds said with a grimace. "It is much more secure, but-"

"But?"

"It's mostly plant samples there – a lot of them," the lieutenant said with a grimace. "Wildlife is represented mostly by prehistoric amphibians and insects-"

"Yes, I and Mac had seen a giant dragonfly," Dylan grimaced.

"Yes, exactly, anyways – this is the world's – or history's – supply of coal ever, so it is managed mostly by people from Ottawa and Victoria, and we've been practically sidelined there – unlike the Jurassic..."

"Where you are getting eaten."

"No. Well, yes, but there is something else. Want to see it?"

Both women nodded.

5-4

_Ever since most of his team went to hunt Helen Cutter throughout time and possibly space, and Sarah Page had died while trying to rescue them from it, Becker thought that he'd seen it all, including Matt Anderson's almighty ego. However, when Abby and Connor burst from a time anomaly running as fast as they probably could and hid behind a car before catching their breath, he realized that he was wrong._

"_Guys?" he looked over the car as they huddled behind the vehicle. "What have you done this time?"_

_It was when the Spinosaurus arrived, charging and smashing through the impromptu car barricade as it was made out of cardboard boxes – it didn't slow the dinosaur at all as it continued to run, vanishing in the streets of London. _

_Luckily, no one appeared to be seriously hurt, though Becker found himself next to Connor and Abby, glowering at them in a far less understanding way._

"_That's not it," Connor replied in a weak voice to the yet unasked question._

_Before Becker could ask what 'it' was, then, the raptors came – and clearly, they were 'it'._

5-5

When the Cross Photonics team arrived, they found the university campus to be in a panic as everyone ran everywhere, but mostly – away from the campus.

"So, does anyone see a T-Rex nearby or anything like it?" Evan said weakly, seeing how it was next to impossible to sort anything in this chaos.

**Evan Cross. You thought you could escape me?**

There was a pause as the foursome from CP turned around.

"So that's what an Albertosaurus looks like," Toby whispered.

"Yes," Evan whispered back, "just without the eyes glowing this weird blue color..."

**You cannot escape me this time!**

"You and what army?" Evan snapped, no longer caring about the absurdity of what was going on.

**This one.**

And indeed a small army of armed men began to emerge from behind the dinosaur.

"Mac?" Dylan whispered to the Englishman. "You have any idea?"

"Well, they're Chinese. Judging by the largely leather armor, Dao swords and primitive firearms... not Middle Ages, more like the Renaissance or hereabout, by European standards... Scatter!"

The CP team scattered just as their enemies opened fire.

5-6

Samantha pulled out her extendable baton of a club and took a stance. The Lycaenops took a good look at her and leapt. It slammed Samantha into the elevator... that chose to open right that minute and both the therapsid and Samantha tumbled head over heels into it.

Fortunately, Samantha was able to recover first and pulled herself fully out of the elevator's space, just as it closed shut. Then, as the elevator began to shudder from the Lycaenops' struggles on the inside, she closed her eyes and muttered:

"I need a raise. Also – Mac."

5-7

The room largely resembled an aviary and smelled like it too – a lot. Still, it was not an aviary all the same.

"What is this place? I mean, rather, what are those creatures?" Angelika Finch said in a nasal voice as she pinched her nose to keep the stench out.

"Pterosaurs. Scientists say that they are Dimorphodon and Rhamphorhynchus, though in plural their names are different."

"Dylan..." Ange was almost pleading. "In lay person terms, you have any ideas?"

"Angelika, relax," Dylan almost smiled – the smell was getting to her too, though, so she relented. "Basically, these are like the Pteranodon we fought in the park...only more basic and much smaller..."

"And also much more social, we think – we know, we can see," Leeds added as he and the women continued to observe the pterosaurs that fluttered back and forth through the room. The rhamphorhynchuses were more bird-like, at least from the front, the size of an average sea gull and with long, vane-like tails. They were almost more active and preferred to fly through the airspace.

The dimorphodons were more bat- or even lizard-like, with large, obtuse, briefcase-like heads. They preferred to hang around the surrogate trees and hiss when other pterosaurs got too close. Their tails too were long, but also relatively straight, more like those of lizards or even rats.

"They are very fascinating," Dylan said quietly.

"Yes, I thought that you were going to say that," Ange quietly agreed. "Let's go and check on Toby, shall we?"

Reluctantly, Dylan complied.

5-8

"So, that's the dreaded Lycaenops," Samantha muttered to Ange and Toby. "Got to admit, when it killed me the first time, it seemed tougher."

"Yes, well, back then you – we were on a more even footing," Toby shook her head. "Don't forget, pound for pound, this is the initial ultimate predator, or almost the ultimate predator. Some of its cousins, like the Gorgonops itself, had been even bigger and tougher – make that a lot bigger and tougher..."

"How do you know...?" Samantha trailed away as she looked in the direction that others were looking at. Sure enough, there was the male Lycaenops, halfway in a tree, hissing and growling...

...at the much bigger therapsid that was emerging through a time anomaly.

"Crap."

5-9

"Mac? Mac! Come in, Mac! You've got to take a bath and remove this shirt right now!" Dylan yelled through her walkie-talkie. What she was hearing back was not reassuring.

"Aargh! Aargh! It is f*cking me alive!" came the desperate cry for help.

"We're on it," Dylan assured the Englishman and looked at Evan. "What? This is clearly a masculine problem; he needs your help first and foremost."

"I agree," Toby spoke up nervously as her head bobbed up and down. "Evan, Mac needs! I mean, needs you!"

Evan glared.

5-10

"_Daphne. Shaggy." James Lester glowered. "You've been back in the Present for about half an hour and have already unleashed a plague of dinosaurs on London. What can you say for yourselves?"_

"_It's all Matt Anderson's fault?" Abby said weakly, expecting Lester's reaction. She failed to expect this, though._

"_Ah," Lester beamed. "Good enough for me. Now go and fill-in your paperwork, before I fire you for good! And when I say 'fire', I mean from a cannon – preferably one that's mega-sized, like the one in Moscow Kremlin..."_

_Connor and Abby took the hint and got out while the going was good._

End


	6. Chapter 6

**Living in the Loop: Life #6 – an intimate time**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

6-1

"Lah-dah-dah, lah-dah-dah-dee," Toby Nance sang joyously, if not quite in tune, as she made sandwiches.

"What are you so happy about?" Angelika Finch, Toby's superior at Cross Photonics, asked nonchalantly.

"Hello! Natalie has invited me to a picnic! We hadn't had one in months!" Toby emphatically replied. "It's so fun!"

"And you asked me to drive you there why?" Ange said, sounding much less enthusiastic than Toby.

"Because my driving skills are not that good?" Toby said with a disarming smile. "Come on, Ange, you promised? Please?"

"I will, I will," Ange sighed. "Just when exactly?"

"Soon, in ten more minutes or so, please? Just let me finish getting ready?"

Ange sighed and glanced at the watch. Toby usually did not need cosmetics to make herself look good, but like so many other people she decided to go for them all the same. Consequently, she was 'sprucing up' for 20 minutes already, and it looked like she was going for the full half an hour, if not more.

"Done!" Toby said suddenly, startling the older woman. "Now come on, let's go – we're already running late!"

Ange just glared but said nothing, so the two women left without incident.

6-2

"Toby? Psst! Toby! Curses, she's gone," Sam the security guard muttered as she got into Toby's impromptu office. "I thought that she would be sprucing herself for another 20 minutes or so."

"Sprucing who? Who's gone?" Mac asked, as he entered the same space and stared – unlike her usual, Sam was currently wearing some sort of a red-and-white polka dot dress, and a rather revealing one, by Cross Photonics' standards.

"Toby..." Sam muttered absent-mindedly. "Mac! You are not supposed to be here! You are not supposed to see this! You're supposed to see this this evening!"

"Sorry," Mac muttered half-apologetically. "It's just that Toby called saying that she was leaving earlier – she was a model, so she knew – knows – how to make herself look good fast, I suppose..." he paused and added. "I like your dress too, by the way."

"Thanks," Sam said, sounding oddly shy. "So, uh, Toby's gone?"

"Yes, and it is probably up to me to keep an eye – or an ear – on the time anomaly alarm," Mac agreed.

"Mhm. Until it sounds, want to make out behind the sofa?"

Mac mentally calculated the loudness of Toby's alarm, divided it by the distance between Toby's workstation and the sofa and came to an appropriate conclusion. "Yes, let's."

6-3

"Natalie, hi!" Toby squealed excitedly, as the two young women heartily embraced themselves. "Long time no see - mmph!"

"Right back at you!" Natalie finally replied, as she broke their kiss due to lack of air. "So, what has happened lately?"

"Not much. Evan and the others have been out last night, dealing with some sort of a dinosaur swarm," Toby confessed. "Anyways-"

"Anyways," Angelika spoke up, "I hate to interrupt, but I do need to know – will I be driving Toby back or-"

"Oh, I'll do that," Natalie said quickly, "you don't need to bother, honest!"

"In that case – good luck," Angelika said as the younger women nodded in reply and left towards the designed picnic area. Smiling slightly (Toby and Natalie made a good couple), Angelika turned around and frowned.

"Lieutenant Leeds," she asked the blonde man, who appeared to be as honestly surprised as she was. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, well, uh – what are you doing here... Miss Finch?" the blonde man finally managed to ask.

"I gave a friend of mine a lift – she's here on a date," Angelika explained patiently. "And you?"

(From various past loops Angelika _did_ know that there was a time anomaly – one that was leading to late Jurassic – and that would come under military control always. But still, it did not hurt to ask and to watch Lt. Leeds sweat.)

"Um, well, nothing," the lieutenant muttered, before he changed his mind. "Ok, look. According to our _own_ information there is a time anomaly nearby-"

"What about the one in the Canadian Tire store? Is it under control?"

"Yes, actually," her interlocutor thoughtfully replied. "That said, I'm talking about that time anomaly _site_ rather than the time anomaly proper – so far it shows no signs of re-opening, unlike this one, which remains to be rather stably open-"

"With electromagnets?" Angelika innocently asked, remembering the time when she was a witness to Project Magnet's retrieval mission. It ended in failure, though not downright disaster.

"That's classified information, ma'am," Leeds shyly replied. "Anyways, um, what are you doing here?"

"I already told you," Angelika rolled her eyes. "I drove a friend here, and now that I'm done with that, I am free to go...unless you want me to stay?" It was a perfectly innocent question... if I didn't know that last night Lt. Leeds promptly and directly offered Angelika to be 'his' and didn't receive any sort of reply at all. In any case...

"Um," Leeds turned red. "Well..." He looked around and saw an ice cream truck. "Want to have an ice cream?"

Angelika smiled. The good lieutenant was a good man, and he was sort of good-looking. "Yes, let's."

"Hooray! I mean..."

Angelika just smiled.

6-4

The grizzly bear was walking among its usual routes, seeking any potential food supplies with its keen sense of smell. It had been in this area before, catching small mammals and ground-nesting birds, or scavenging the remains of picnics (sometimes scaring the actual picnickers away in the process). Overall, this was a good feeding ground, and the bear had no intention of giving it up.

Suddenly, just as it was turning around there was a crack and large tree came crashing down, just at where the bear was currently standing. Without really thinking about it, the bear jumped aside – and fell through a time anomaly, vanishing without a trace.

The woman, who had actually caused the tree to fall, just smiled.

6-5

Allosaurus, a 10-meter-long dinosaur, was in a bad mood. For several decades now it had been the undisputed master of this area, the top hunter in the vanishing world of the late Jurassic. Lately, though, it was being challenged by a pair of smaller carnivores, ceratosaurs, which had been driven into this upland forest by the unpredictable weather, and it was annoying.

(The competition, that is, not the weather. The weather was a completely separate problem.)

For a while the allosaurus played a cat-and-mouse game with its rivals, doing its best to track them down and kill them or drive them out – but until right now it just had no luck in catching the smaller hunters.

Now, though, luck was apparently on its side as it finally noticed one of the ceratosaurs – the smaller female – as it lurked behind a boulder in ambush. Instead, the ceratosaurus itself ended up ambushed, as the allosaurus leapt at it from the side and behind.

Sadly, while the dinosaurs didn't hold 'luck' as a concept in their worldview, it did exist all the same: it was pure luck that caused the ceratosaurus to notice the leaping death from behind, and instinctively, the smaller dinosaur made its own lunge – just in time for the allosaurus to inflict a large, but shallow bite on one of its thighs, before the ceratosaurus fled – and the chase was on.

6-6

It begins as it always began in a thousand of loops: a pair of people boating in a pair of Zodiac™ inflatable rafts over the waters of the Pacific Ocean doing their business.

A time anomaly would open deep within the selfsame waters. A prehistoric (or futuristic, but that is beside the point) carnivore would emerge from it, its eyes aiming up and about.

It would notice the inflatable rafts and swim upwards... but this time the time anomaly spat out a very modern brown bear (the grizzly subspecies) that literally came flying from the time anomaly like a bullet from a gun.

Furthermore, fortunately for the bear, the time anomaly sent it upwards, where it breached the surface – just close enough to the Zodiac raft to fall onto it, as the time anomaly's momentum had exhausted itself.

For several moments the bear just stared at two people (who stared back at him), and then it snarled.

Shrieking, the humans jumped overboard and began to swim towards the shore.

Snarling, the bear followed.

6-7

Shrieking from fear and pain, the ceratosaurus female fled from the snarling allosaurus – right into a clearing, where the second ceratosaurus was waiting.

For several moments the allosaurus thought over this new development, giving its original quarry just enough time to hide behind its mate and then it lunged.

And the male ceratosaurus lunged back, causing the allosaurus to miss while biting onto one of its forelegs instead, albeit unsuccessfully. Still, it caused the allosaurus to jump back, before lunging once more and knocking the ceratosaurus male off its feet.

Sadly, this gave the female an opening to jump upon the bigger carnivore and inflict a shallow, but heavily bleeding bite to the neck. The allosaurus roared, flinging its second opponent away...and the first ceratosaurus bit it in the right knee, causing a large and serious wound, causing the allosaurus to collapse - hard.

Confident that they have won the ceratosaur pair left the clearing...

6-8

"Dylan?"

"Yup," the ex-ranger nodded. "It's me. What's up, Evan?"

"Well, where is everybody?"

"Toby is out on a date, and Ange is either chaperoning her or decided to use Toby as an excuse to go out. Mac and Sam are similarly occupied with each other. This leaves just me – and you. Or not," Dylan added hurriedly when it became obvious that Evan did not take her flippancy all that well. "Sorry?"

"That's okay," Evan shook his head. "Never mind. I just... it's just..." he paused. "Ange. I am reasonably sure that she plans to leave Cross Photonics-"

"Ah," Dylan nodded, visibly dimming.

"Not like that!" Evan said quickly. "I am just... it's just... look. Ange and I are friends, but she is also a CFO of Cross Photonics, replacing her quickly with someone secure enough to be trusted with the time anomaly secret won't be easy, and running CP won't be easy either-"

"I understand," Dylan began to reply, when the phone rang. "Hello? Angelika, hi. We were just talking about you- What? Seriously? Ok..." Dylan put down the receiver and looked at Evan. "Um. Angelika just called and said that you and our dinosaur-hunting team were required – "as independent experts or something". You game?"

"Yes," Evan quickly said – dinosaurs were simple, after all, unlike women. "Contact Mac and tell him to join us at – you've got the location?"

"Yes," Dylan nodded as she turned and faced the sofa. "I've written the coordinates down and put them next to the keyboard."

"Thanks, Dylan," Mac suddenly peaked from behind the sofa. "We'll be behind you in a minute – hello, Evan."

"...Hello, Dylan. Is Sam with you?"

"Yes, I am," Sam also peaked from behind the sofa. "Hi!"

"...Hello to you too. What are you two – no. _Why_ are you two behind the sofa?"

"Because Toby may be a wonderful woman, but her housecleaning skills suck and the sofa is quite covered with remains of junk food of all sorts."

"Ah, of course," Evan nodded in apparent understanding. "Silly me. Still, you've got your orders, right?"

Everybody nodded.

6-9

"Your pets, Helen, are upsetting everything! Just like you they don't seem to realize when it is time to die!"

Helen calmly looked at her interlocutrix. "Simmer down, Melinoe! After all, this is not your show to begin with. What says Gigi?"

"...Don't call me that. And yes, Melinoe, I am interested in seeing what will happen next. Let's not interfere – yet."

"...Where's a sharknado when you need one?"

6-10

Evan and the others just stared at the lying prone dinosaur, clearly a carnivore. "Is that the dinosaur that ate Brooke?" Angelika said quietly.

"No," Evan replied equally quietly. "This is the wrong dinosaur altogether, not to mention its body proportions – they are much too gracile."

"Really? The bugger is 10 meters long on the average!" Mac pointed out from Angelika's right.

Evan looked askance at his right-hand man. Mac and Sam might have still looked somewhat dishevelled, but at least they were back to their regular selves – hopefully. "I know," he said instead, "but the neck is too long and thin, the head is too small, the body isn't as robust, the front legs are too well developed – this isn't the dinosaur that killed Brooke. Sorry." He paused and added: "How did you find it?"

"Natalie and I were in the woods – I had too much soda and needed to pee – when I came across it," Toby explained. "It tried to snarl at me, but as even I could see it is in a bad way – one of the knees is torn open and I think that it is bleeding from the neck. We ran to Ange and Lieutenant Leeds and told them about this. Ange called us – well, you. Leeds called his army friends – you know, probably the same ones that cleaned up that Canadian Tire mess recently and there we are."

Evan stared. Toby's bright grin dimmed. "Something wrong?" she tentatively asked.

"Why Leeds was here in the first place?"

"Following the army's own leads on a local time anomaly – and judging by our reptile friend here, they're correct," Angelika answered instead.

"And what are they planning to do with 'our reptile friend'?" Dylan suddenly spoke up, rather sharply.

"Honestly? I have no idea," for the first time today Angelika looked uncomfortable. "Look, they're already sending a helicopter here-"

"We hear them," Mac said tersely.

"So, why not ask them?"

"Fair enough," Dylan replied. "I will."

A tense silence descended over the clearing as the allosaurus continued to laboriously breathe.

_TBC_


	7. Chapter 7

**Living in the Loop: Life #28 – odds and ends**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their appropriate owners._

7-1

"You know, this is a first time for me," Moiraine Sedai, one of the greatest Aes Sedai that had ever walked their world, told Angelika.

"Your first loop or your first loop away from your home world?" Angelika decided to clarify.

"The second," Moiraine looked around, shifting her trunk in the process. "Back home, I have already gone through several, and let me tell you, if you think that it gets easier with practice, you're wrong."

"I believe you," Angelika shrugged as she trotted along the taller woman. "It also very despairing, if it is a real word-"

"It is-"

"-Right, well, I know from where you're coming from," Angelika continued without breaking her stride, "and I got to ask you: have you ever tried to do anything different, to be anyone different from who you usually are?"

"No, and I don't think I can," Moiraine responded with a frown, though it was hard to tell: in this Loop Angelika's eyesight was definitely worse for wear. "You see, I live at a very troublesome time, when the Shepherd of the Night is about to make his final and ultimate bid for the destruction of the world. I really don't feel that it is the right time for me to be _someone else_..."

"And to do things differently?"

"Oh, I do _that_, no problem. Still, I usually end up redundant around the same time and end up killing Moghedien and getting killed by her over and over again."

"Have you tried stopping her first?"

"I can't. She may be Forsaken, but she still has a lot more power in me – until the very end, and even then it costs me my life."

"Hah. And I thought that _my_ life was bad," Angelika whisked away some biting flies. "Are there any other Loopers in your world?"

"Egwene, I believe, and Perrin. Sadly, they're not the closest to me, so getting to know them is difficult."

"Hm." Angelika wanted to shrug, but decided against it – she was not in the right shape to do that right now. "I'm not the best friends with Mac or Connor Temple either – far from it – but I did get to know them well enough in all those loops. Still, most of my encounters with Mac came from the Loops when I was a great white shark, and he – a saltwater croc, so what do I know?"

"So, this isn't your first Loop as an animal?" Moiraine said carefully.

"No," Angelika confessed. "Still, previously I was a shark, not a land animal, remember?"

"Fair enough. So when this will be over?"

"When we die is my best guess," Angelika shrugged or tried to as her body rippled instead.

"Oh dear," Moiraine swung her trunk once more. "I guess that we'll have to make the best of it."

"I agree."

And Moiraine Sedai the African bush elephant went on through the Serengeti plains alongside Angelika Finch the white rhinoceros (not a shark!).

7-2

The Canadian Tire™ store loomed in the dark of Toronto's night – on the outside. Inside, however, it was still illuminated well enough to see without night vision goggles.

"Right," Evan spoke to Mac and Dylan. "Toby said that here was both a time anomaly and a creature of some sort – and it already killed a security guard."

"Wonderful," Mac said in the same brittle-bright tone that he tended to use with Evan lately, ever since Sam has died. "I'm going left – you two do whatever you want."

"Wait!" Dylan called out, but Mac was through with listening to either of them for a while: he went forth and soon found himself...hopelessly lost among all the shelves in the massive store.

"Yo! Prehistoric Monster! Are you here?" he called out, only half-teasing.

A loud growl coming from above was Mac's reply. Slowly, the Englishman looked upwards...

...and so a jaguar. A common, modern, ordinary, jaguar.

Instinctively, Mac fired, but the big cat was already jumping away, seeking to escape from the human rather than to attack.

Reloading his tranquilizer gun on the go, Mac followed the jaguar from below – and ran through into a time anomaly!

"Whoa!" was the only thing he said as he suddenly found himself in a South American rainforest. "This is something new!"

A green anaconda that was lurking offshore nearby had a slightly different view of the event: it burst from the water, its mouth wide open and it struck.

7-3

"You wanted to see me, Black?" Angelika Finch said crossly. She had been in Hogwarts in several previous Loops, but never as the Head of the House of Slytherin: it was a nervous and an ill-fitting experience, and the fact that this was after the fourth year in this universe did not make Angelika any happier.

But now this. A friendly (well, relatively friendly) invite from Sirius Black? Rowling has never written anything like this, but the headmaster Dumbledore had insisted and Angelika had to stay in character, so here she was, having tea with Black and feeling unhappier by the hour.

"Yes, Sni – Snape," the (de-facto) head of the noble and ancient House of Black replied with a slight grimace of his own. "I want to offer a truce."

"And what do you mean by that?" Angelika asked, the CFO temporarily overriding the Potions' Master.

"If you promise to treat my godson decently, I'll treat you decently," Black promptly replied. "How does that sound?"

"Ok," Angelika nodded, eager to get over with this ASAP. "It's a deal."

Black blinked. "You feeling okay there, Snape?"

"No," Angelika glared. "I'm having a bad month already, and spending more time in your company than it is necessary isn't helping any. So, if agreeing with you will help me get out of this house faster, I'm game." She whirled around and left in a successfully gothic flourish of robes, perhaps for the first time ever since she ended up in this Loop.

Black just stared silently at her retreating back until Kreacher decided to take advantage of this situation and 'accidentally' spilled some hot tea onto his robe, trousers and shoes. And then it was back to hi-jinks as usual.

7-4

"Mac, Mac, where are you?" Dylan called out as she and Evan continued to search the Canadian Tire™ store, both for the monster and for Mac. "Evan! Any luck?"

"No," the latter admitted unhappily. "It's like he has vanished off the face of Earth..." and then they came across the time anomaly.

"You don't think?" Evan and Dylan exchanged knowing looks. "Of course he would."

Slowly, the two of them made their way through the time anomaly and found themselves... in a South American rainforest. It was wet and hot and humid and stinking.

"Mac! Where are you?" Evan called out, before Dylan grabbed him by a sleeve and pointed something out: it was Mac's tranquilizer gun, lying half-submerged in a river's shallows.

With some sort of a strange cry Evan dove in.

7-5

"Professor! Professor?"

"Yes, Mr. Black?" the headmistress of Gryffindor asked the wizard as her head appeared in the fireplace. "I must point out that it isn't the best of time for you to be calling me-"

"I'm sorry, but have you seen professor Snape lately? She seems to be somewhat... off lately."

"My boy, I am extremely happy to hear that you're taking your offer to be nice to the poor girl seriously," the face of Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of all of Hogwarts, appeared in the fireplace as well. "We were just discussing this and other topics at our staff conference."

"Oh! I did not know that you were having a conference! I'm quite sorry!" Sirius tried to frantically backpedal. "I'll call later?"

No luck. "No need to, my boy," Albus said brightly. "This is irregular, but I've expected this. Please come in – I admit that it's a bit hard using the floo, but since I'm the headmaster..."

As Albus Dumbledore droned on, Angelika and Moiraine – the heads of Slytherin and Gryffindor – exchanged thoughtful looks: now what?

7-6

"Ms. Finch?"

Angelika Finch (in this Loop – never a part of Cross Photonics) opened her door. "Yes? It is I. And who are you?"

"Oh! Uh! I'm... officer Leeds!"

"Splendid." Angelika's tone of voice showed full evidence to the contrary. "And what do you want?"

"We're here to talk about Evan Cross-"

"I've parted my ways with Evan when his wife died. She was my friend, and Evan – not so much. If he has a problems, check out his company – if anyone knows about him, they are to be found there."

"That's the problem, ma'am. He's, uh, missing."

"Well he isn't _here_," Angelika said indignantly. "I haven't seen Evan Cross for a while now-"

"Can we check?"

"You have a warrant?"

"Um, no?"

"Then no. Have a good day."

And Angelika Finch closed the door.

"That didn't go well," Lt. Leeds said sheepishly to no one in particular.

7-7

The meeting at Colonel Hall's was not a particularly happy event at the best of circumstances, and now – especially so. "Lieutenant? Report," the aforementioned colonel said curtly.

"There's nothing report, sir – just another dead end," Kenneth Leeds said sheepishly before glaring at his part-time nemesis. "What's so funny, major?"

The latter opened his mouth to retort but fell silent at the colonel's glare. "Report," colonel Hall said even more curtly, and the major complied.

"Sir. Dylan Weir has quit from Wildlife Control a while now – she either failed a psychological evaluation or did not take one, period. Either way, they couldn't talk to us properly either – not at the moment: some wild cat, a jaguar most likely, had escaped from someone's private zoo and they had to catch it."

"In other words – more dead ends," the colonel said flatly. "Looks like that we'll have to buy out Cross Photonics or at least take it under our unofficial control if we're to remain in control of the situation. Understood?"

His subordinates just nodded in reply.

7-8

"Shouldn't you be doing this with Dylan and Evan?" Angelika Finch asked crossly as she and Mac Randall made their way to the Canadian Tire™.

"I would, but you're Awake in this Loop, and I never fully forgave Evan for losing Sam," Mac grimaced. "Well, maybe 'forgave' is a wrong word, but still. I got options for the moment so I'm going to use them – okay?"

"I don't like to be referred as an 'option', but I don't like you either, but here I am all the same," Angelika replied. "Very well, what do you want me to do?"

Before Mac could reply, the windows of the store exploded and out came a literal flood of dinosaurs. They were small – much smaller than the dinosaurs Mac and Ange had encountered previously in the base time line – but they were carnivorous and they were hungry.

Ange and Mac looked at each other and frantically retreated to call for back up.

7-9

The tiger looked like the Bengal variety, but it was still magnificent: orange, black and white, with blazing eyes it looked very much like the basic "Tiger, Tiger," of Blake's poem. The fact that Ange was dreaming it only made this impression stronger.

"Yes?" she asked, figuring out that if this was a dreaming, she was in control of it. Probably. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Still do," the tiger rumbled. "I am known by many names – the Shepherd of the Night; the Black King; the First Evil, but the one I prefer to use is Shai'Tan."

"Master of Moghedien, I believe? Moiraine has told me about you-"

"Yes, Moghedien is one of my Forsaken, but I have many more, and I would like you to be one of them."

Angelika stared. For a moment she thought that she was talking to Lt. Leeds when he accidentally offered her to be 'his Ange', only this was far less funny. "Now why do you want something like that?" she finally asked.

"You're already partway mine; you're selfish and clever, not unlike Grendael," Shai'Tan promptly replied. "Join me, and I will give you what I want – power and wealth, respect and love and companions!"

"Or, as Mathew has written, 'All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me'?"

"Precisely! That, admittedly, was not the best episode in my life, but I was being honest even then, and besides – you're not that Man."

"No," Ange agreed. "Most certainly not, but neither am I that Grendael of whom you speak. There may not be much of a line between being selfish, between not being a hero and being a villain, but it _does_ exist and I shall not cross it. Go away – I deny you."

"Fool," the tiger said almost fondly. "I will have you, on your terms or mine, and when I do, your knowledge will be mine, believe it!"

And then he was gone.

7-10

"And that what happened," Angelika told Moiraine a while later. "Out of curiosity, you didn't get a visit by the same entity last night, did you?"

The Patil twins, (in this loop), Ange and Moiraine were clearly fraternal, since they were quite different from each other, aside from their ages. The fact that one of them was a Gryffindor and the other – a Slytherin, only made this situation more bizarre.

"No," Moiraine said firmly. "He never did. He never will, and you never should either – join him, I mean."

"I have no intent to," Ange shook her head. "I may not be a hero like Evan and the others are, but forsaking myself or whatever? This isn't going to happen!"

"Good!" Moiraine said with evident relief. "I'll hold you to that!"

And the two girls (young women?) just smiled in mutual respect and friendship.

"We'll just see about that," Grendael Parkinson muttered as she looked from around the corner. "You haven't seen the last of my master or me yet Patil! Or Finch. Whatever."

"Gren, we will be late for class," Daphne Greengrass came up to her friend.

"Coming, Daph," the other Slytherin (the other _other_ Slytherin?) replied and ran off with her to see what latest idiocy Gilderoy Lockhart will pull.

End Life #28


End file.
